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I didn’t take this from my old reports, it’s going to be very new as I just finished this book yesterday. This book needs a shoutout! Just like how it’s stated in the back cover, this is great for parents, teachers, day care or homeschooling practitioners and government. In general, those who have interest in education just like me!

It tells about the education system in Japan, specifically in daycare, preschool-kindergarten, and elementary school. Coming from the experience of Indonesian mothers who live in Japan, this is quite personal, which makes this even more enjoyable.

cr: Kalengkentang

I’ve always been a fan of Japan Culture (as you can see here). And when I read this book, actually I’m already familiar to how the schools are. The rough pictures from their entertainment products; movies, dramas, and animation. So, this book gives a deeper insight to my knowledge. The information here are pretty detailed and systematic. From the kinds of formal education for children in Japan to the all activities they do at school. Pictures also provided as an examples to make it clearer. There is even the description of how is teacher as a profession perceived in Japan. Turns out, teacher is a prestigious job which many people in Japan want to be. Japan takes children as a very precious being who would be the future of Japan so education is number one priority. That’s why, people who dedicate their time and effort to educate them will be highly respected.

‘Japan really think of education seriously, the system is very well thought of’. This thought kept coming when I read this book. Because, every aspects needed to make children learn and become a proper human-being is taken care of. They emphasize the importance of learning-by-doing and the development of characters not study for the sake of tests only. And what makes me really envious of them is the government plays a huge role in this. All the public schools there could possibly have the same standard as some of private schools in Indonesia. From the facilities to the curriculum. So, Japan citizen prefer to put their kids in public school with no worries. Since private school is also much more expensive.

There are many lessons we can take even for us, adults. The principles thought there such as to respect people (greet people, queuing), be responsible (of their own trashes and own belongings), be productive (many activities at school, even when in summer breaks schools encourage students and family to do something together), be knowledgeable (reading is a habit), and to converse traditional culture. Imagine all this are thought at school and not only that but the society is embracing the same values as well. In this book, the authors also give example on how to apply the principles to your children. Surely not everything can be easily applied, since there is difference in culture and habit. As much as we want our children to learn and adapt the principles, the society may have different values. So, it wouldn’t be as easy. The authors itself told how hard it is to keep the values learned from Japan’s school once their children come back to Indonesia.

Besides the lessons learned, it actually inspired me to build a school using the same system. As well made me wonder is there any school in Indonesia who has applied this system? (I’m hoping there is, lol). All in all, I like this book and it’s truly a suitable book for those mentioned above. If the government can’t be relied on, let’s just do it from ourselves.

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year and I’ve only got three posts on 2015. As of now, I will try my best to post as many as possible before the year changes. This time I publish a movie review that has been in the dungeon for two years, lol. I don’t know why I wrote this post but never finish it. For those who don’t really take time to watch dramas, I present to you a movie review. To be exact, a Japanese movie: Kimi ni Todoke.

Kimi ni todoke: The poster

This is not a recent movie (2010) and I watched this long ago, probably 2011? I remember this movie as something sweet, light and feel-good, the kind where you don’t really have to think about it. But I really like it, and here’s why. Let’s start from the story.

Kuronuma Sawako (Tabe Mikako) is known as Sadako in her school, rumor has it those who look her in the eyes for three seconds would be cursed. In fact, she is just a shy and quiet girl who happens to have Sadako-like long hair. In contrast to her personality, there we have the popular guy, Kazehaya Shota (Miura Haruma). He is a bright and attractive person (like any popular guy in manga, is really good in everything, lol). Sawako admires him too, and things about to change when on one fine day Kazehaya talks to her.

Really, Sawako?

Kimi ni Todoke translated as From Me to You, the famous tagline would be “When will it reach you? My feelings for you”. It’s pointing to Kazehaya’s feelings toward Sawako who oblivious to that fact. But if we look closer, it’s actually more about relationships in general, between friends, family and someone you like. Sawako has hard time expressing her feelings so that’s why the rumors keep going and she stays lonely until Kazehaya comes to the picture. Even for those who have no problems expressing, sometimes they don’t really have the guts to say things to other people, so I think that’s the main message of this movie. To just say it. Kazehaya phrased it better:

“A pass won’t be received well by others if you don’t seriously think for it to reach them” – Kazehaya Shota

This is such a simple story, it could be typical (or is it typical? What is typical anyway? lol). A popular guy in love with the ordinary-to-outcast girl. But, what I really like about it is the characters, especially the girl lead, Sawako. She’s not whiny, she’s honest and straightforward. She’s a delicate, naive and very kind person but actually really strong. Not the strong kind like Tsukushi in Hana Yori Dango or Hina in Pen-bro, but still strong. I mean, she endured all those years being called Sadako, yet she feels bad that she can’t summon ghosts when people expected her to be (since she’s Sadako) in the courage test. The development of her character is so nice to see. Usually, I can’t stand seeing a mediocre female protagonist got the best guy at school, but in Kimi ni todoke, I feel like the guy is actually the lucky one for getting Sawako, lol. She’s so precious.

Kazehaya is by no means bad, but we don’t really need many explanations about his character. He is popular since he’s handsome, smart, athletic and nice with everyone. A really likable person you may say. Him and Sawako had me saying cute over and over again.

Friendship parts the movie bring actually tug my heart string more than the love lines. I can feel the genuine feelings between Sawako and her new-found friends, it actually teared me up in some scenes. I found the truth in this saying so much. most of the times it just happens, being a classmate then friend to best friend.

Chizu – Sawako – Ayane

“Being friends, even before you noticed, it’s happened. We become friends already” – Yoshida Chizuru.

Taken from a popular manga, there’d be differences and comparison. But I think they did a good job considering I can still get the message and feeling the warmth of this story. How feel-good the movie is how there’s no really bad person. This is totally a happy ending kind of movie where everybody turns to be a better person at the end of the day. Everything happens quite fast too, no unnecessary drama included. With that I concluded all the reasons why I love Kimi ni todoke :).

The other next post is here! It has more number than last year, with the equal amount of Japanese and Korean dramas. But I gotta admit that almost half of it comes from drama special, which usually has less than five episodes (just one even) so I could take more titles. Anyhow it’s still called drama so I didn’t lie! :O I can’t believe that those dramas below was watched in 2014, it feels like ages go.

So, last year I found some dramas that become my favorites, the number one spot is Itazura na Kiss: Love in Tokyo! ❤ I was obsessed with it that I watched it twice in a row, even once more while I was doing assignments. The other favorites are I Hear Your Voice (packaged with the soundtracks), Nobuta wo Produce, Hana Kimi, Rich Man Poor Woman, Soratobu Kohoushitsu and Misaeng. Wow I thought there’ll be only three haha. The rest are fine too though. What’s cool is I’ve made a drama review from this list! A little progress always welcome. And I finally watched top and popular old dramas, like Hana Kimi (I watched the remake), Nobuta wo Produce, and Kurosagi. I agree that those are all-time favorite kind of dramas. For this year I only hope that I can still watch them in my leisure times, not specific number (like ever lol), oh I need to watch Itazura na Kiss 2! I’m holding back since it’s not yet completed. I’ll probably try to watch popular Kdramas or just follow my mood as usual~

After ages I finally am writing a drama review. (Haha it happened to be the last review that I wrote is exactly a year ago!) Seriously, not just a glimpse of dialogues or little quotes, but real review. As I was really confused to decide from piles of dramas that I watched, I asked my sister to randomly chose a number from the list and number 74 turned out to be this drama! So let’s just begin.

Kazoku Game or Family Game is a family drama that has a taste of dark comedy. It started with a scene of a guy screaming in the middle of nowhere with blooded hands (just to remind you this isn’t gonna be the last time you see it) then it abruptly adverted to a family in a living room.

Here, an ideal family of four is having a little problem with the youngest son, Numata Shigeyuki. He refuses to come to school and also has really bad grades as the side (main) problem. The parents who have a high expectation on their kids (no underachiever is allowed) decides to call a private tutor to help in solving the case. That private tutor is the screaming guy earlier, which the name is Yoshimoto Koya (Sakurai Sho). Numata Kazuhige, the father, challenges Koya to make Shigeyuki come back to school in a week with a 100.000 yen as bonus. Koya undoubtedly agrees but under one condition: none of the family members should interfere with whatever methods he will use on Shigeyuki (don’t resort to violence! mom said. HAHAH sure)

Relax, mother

If you think this is only about an eccentric tutor who helps his student get through his school and being all inspirational, then you’re kind of wrong (it’s FAMILY Game for god sake). The focus of the drama is not only on the youngest. And Koya is more than just a mere private tutor as well. As the dramas went we can see where actually the core problem lays; the family itself. The so called perfect family is actually crumbling inside. From the father who seems to forget his role, the mother who is more concerned of neighbors’ words, and big brother who pretends to care. It doesn’t even take a Koya to tell how this family is never a perfect one. Koya only reminds them of how their family has actually lost its meaning long time ago.

Father and Shinichi

The way Koya act as a tutor is more like an intervention goes unnoticed. Nobody realizes that they are being the target of intervention except the older brother, Numata Shinichi (Kamiki Ryunosuke). He’s the only one who seek through this weird and mysterious tutor. As much as to his knowledge though, he actually doesn’t realize how he becomes the puppet of the tutor’s game as well. It’s understandable why that Koya said that they shouldn’t interfere with his methods, since it’s, well, unusual. Even, sometimes, I really couldn’t tell whether the tutor is just plain crazy or he really has plans, lol.

right, Shinichi?

This is one of the dramas which I picked because of the actors, haha. Name it Kamiki Ryunosuke and Sakurai Sho. Bias aside, this drama is really interesting (Koya would say ‘iii nee’-it’s good), surely my kind of favorite type (psychological thriller ftw!). It was originally adapted from a novel by Honma Yohei and was already made into a movie back in 1983. These previous creations were award winning ones and fortunately the drama lived up to expectation as well. It had me shocked with its unpredictable twists. I found myself laughing out of creep and disbelief of what happened in the drama. Every time I finished an episode the soundtrack of the drama would linger in my mind, leaving me in curiosity.

There are scenes like this too, so don’t worry it’s still family drama afterall

This drama is a portrayal of reality and that’s why it could be uncomfortable to watch. But, I mostly looove family drama and this would probably be my favorite one (on the side of dark family kind of drama, lol) I like how it kept me questioning what’ s gonna happen next and what is the real intention of this Koya guy. The relationships between Koya and each of the family members are so lovely hahah don’t know if that’s the right word to describe it, but I enjoyed it. And the main message that I could remember is about change. You may do everything you can to make a person change but at the end of the day is that person who would choose to change or not. And you’ve got to take action yourself if you really want revolution happens to you. Don’t just sit and watch things go by, while you actually have power to do something.

I’m currently watching the third season of Gokusen. So, once again Yankumi became the teacher of the most rebellious class 3-D, now in Akadou high school. I like how the students are getting harder to handle each season. In season 3 they become more ignorant and the number one problem is they don’t have the solidarity like in the previous two 3-Ds. The two leaders in the class was about to fight one-on-one to decide who’s gonna lead the class from now on, with actually no real reason why they wanted to be the number one in the first place. Yankumi came in on time before they’re going to hit each other with a stick, no longer bare-handed. And there she said to both of them what is the purpose of real fight, which is not just about winning or losing.

“Stop playing around. A one-on-one is supposed to be bare-handed”

“Weather bare-handed or armed, winning is all that matters in a fight”

“You didn’t stop us yesterday, did you? So why the hell are you stopping us now?”

“Because yesterday was bare-handed. Listen up. When you hit someone your own fists hurt right? If you feel that pain you shouldn’t want to hit someone with no good reason”

“We don’t need lecture on hitting someone. A fight is fought in order to win!”

“A fight is to protect those comrades and other things that are precious to you. Fighting just for yourself is meaningless.

Kalau mau main ABC 5 dasar, nama2 film. You can check out this list ;P

1 Litter of Tears
10 Things I Hate About You
13 Going on 30
13th Ghost
1408
2 Young
252: Signal Of Life
30 Hari Mencari Cinta
50 First Dates
7 Days to Live

A.I
A Bug’s Life
A Series of Unfortunate Event
Accuracy of Death
Ada Apa Dengan Cinta
Air Bud
Alexandria
Alladin
Anaconda
Anastasia
Another Cinderella Story
Ant
Arisan
Armageddon
Attack On The Pin-Up Boys
Avatar
Awake
Ayat-ayat cinta